ELLE DECOR Goes To Saratoga And The Adirondacks

This storied region of upstate New York offers a summer full of pleasures—everything from horse racing to world-class dance and music to historic rustic lodges and acres of pristine forests and mountain trails.

Saranac Lake

Saranac Lake

Since the middle of the 19th century, Saratoga Springs has been the northern outpost of cultured and sophisticated New York. Once the summer haunt of well-heeled families drawn to its legendary mineral springs—as well as sportsmen eager to try their luck at its racetrack—the city retains its aura of elegance to this day, with charming shopping streets, handsome Victorian and Queen Anne architecture, and a multitude of cultural institutions. But Saratoga's tradition of urbanity doesn't stop at the edge of town. The hamlets that dot vast Adirondack Park, which begins a few miles to the north and continues almost to the Canadian border, have long provided a different kind of resort experience. Here, Rockefellers, Posts, and other industrialists built their "great camps," where luxury mixed with rustic style. (Deer antlers and birch furniture are still very much in evidence.)

The welcome sign at the edge of Saratoga, a short distance from the site of one of the key battles of the Revolutionary War, sums up the city in three short words: "Health, history, horses." The town has been attracting visitors since the Mohawk Indians were drawn to its seemingly numinous mineral water. George Washington made a detour here in 1783, when he was still a general, to imbibe; convinced of the water's restorative power, he attempted to buy one of Saratoga's 17 naturally carbonated springs.

"Have a taste—it's good for you," Vanessa Cambria offers, holding out a small paper cup that she has filled from what looks like an ordinary water fountain at the Roosevelt Baths & Spa, where she is the manager. The water is a little yellow and decidedly not clear. It bubbles on the tongue and tastes sweet and a bit rancid, but not so much that you couldn't convince yourself it's full of healthful properties. Float in one of the Roosevelt's deep tubs filled with this stuff, and you're likely to come out with a new appreciation for carbon dioxide.

On Broadway, Saratoga's main street, you can score a wedge of marbled Cahill Porter cheddar from the temperature-controlled cheese room at Putnam Market and Ricard-flavored gâteau Basque from Mrs. London's Bakery and Café for a picnic in picturesque Congress Park—but you might want to take a spin on the park's wood carousel first. Then head over to Lyrical Ballad Bookstore, where the rarest treasures are inside the bank vault that owners John and Janice DeMarco found when they broke through a wall to fit their trove of 135,000 antiquarian books. "We're a destination," Janice says. "We have customers who come to Saratoga specifically to spend two or three days with us."

Chances are those book lovers don't come in late July and August, when the locals make way for the incoming crowds of horse lovers and every room in town is booked. Three dollars will get you inside the stately Saratoga Race Course, and its turreted grandstand, topped by golden finials, affords perfectly adequate viewing. Book breakfast at the clubhouse, and you'll have a ringside seat as the horses work out along the track before the first race.